THE SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE PLAINS INDIANS
OF NORTH AMERICA
signs and gestures have been used from the earliest recorded
a substitute for speech or in order to gupplement.
times either
speech. In many occupations today signs are used much more
conveniently than words. Sounds are often impractical because of
noise, distance or the need for silence. Social relationships, even in
om modern time, are facilitated by the use of nonvocal communication.=
The Plains Indians, as generally referred to in this paper, are
the Indians who used t h e sign language and who lived between the
Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and from the Frazer River
in British Columbia to the Rio Grande River in the South.
According to Walter Prescott Webb the Plains have remained a
cultural unit.2 Within this cultural unit there are thirty-one tribes
of Indians. The eleven typical tribes are the Assiniboin, Arapaho,
Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, KiowaApache, Sarsi, Teton-Dakota.
The sign language, according to Hodge's Handbook of American
Indiana, apparently was never used west of the Rocky Mountains
except among the Nez Perces or other Indians who were accustomed
to periodic hunting trips on the Plains3
Picture-writing the world over, as well as in the North American
continent, probably grew out of sign language thus giving us three
stages of development. (1) Sign language, (2) Pictographs and
(3) Alphabet.'
The English scientist, Sir Richard Paget, has estimated that"the human hand is about 20,000 times more versatile than the
r n o ~ t h . " ~He further theorized that by the aid of the arms and
-
Jerell Ray Walker, of Oklahoma City, is now in military service (M.P.Det..
He made this study of the American Indian
sign lanmage a s a graduate student, Department of History, the University of
Oklahoma.-Ed.
IDavidson, h e t t e J.. "Some Current Folk Gestures And Sign Languages",
AmmmcanSpeech, XXV (No. I, Feb, 1950), p. 3.
a Walter P. Webb, The Great Plains (Dallas, 1931), p. 50.
s Cuolyn Thomas Foreman, "Lewis Francis Hadley: 'The Long-Haired Sign
Talker'", The CIrrunicles of OWalioma, Vol. XXVII, No. I (Spring, 1949-SO), p. 41.
4Prederick S. Dellenbaugh, T k North Americans of Yesterduy (New York,
1901), p. 49.
SWaldemar: Kaempffert, T k New York Ti-,
"The Week In Science: Speaking With The Hands", (March 15, 1936) VoL XI, 6:2.
4005th A.S.U.) at Ft. Hood, Texas.
Sign Language of $he Plns
lndimu
169
fingers it would be possible to produce over 70,000 distinct elementary
signs while the maximum number of mouth gestures is 144.
There has been a great deal of speculation concerning the origin
of the language of gestures. It is fairly well established that the
specific origin is not known. Several men have made extensive
studies of the sign language. Perhaps the two most notable men are
Captain William Philo Clark and Garrick Mallery.
Lewis F. Hadley, who at one time lived in what later became
Western Oklahoma, made a study of the sign language. He said, referring to the development and origin of the Indian sign 1anguage:e
My idea is that the Indian Sign Language is of a natural growth; a
creation of necessity when we recognize the hundreds of their distinct
languages, to say nothing of the numerous dialects of each, we must perceive that no one Indian tongue could be very widespread; that one could
not travel continuously and meet people of the same speech.
And the circumstances of the Western plains and mountain Indians who
followed Buffalo from one feeding ground to another over vast regions of
country would tend to bring different tribes into the same locality, and as
they could not understand each other's words, it is but natural t o suppose
that some means of communication would grow to become intelligible.
Captain Clark gow into the origin of the sign language in some
detail :?
That we find no positive evidence of the existence and use of gesture
speech does not necessarily show that there was none, [indicating the status
of the Eastern tribes in former times1 a s is shown by the following notable
examples. Circumstances forced Lewis and Clarke [sic] in their exploration of the then unknown West to spend the winter of 1804-5 with the
Mandans, Gros Ventres, and Arickarees in their village on the Missouri,
only a short distance below the present site of their camp a t Fort Berthold.
During the winter the Cheyennes and Sioux visited this village, and there
can be no doubt that gesture speech was daily and hourly used by the
members of these tribes as it is today when they meet, but no mention is
made of the fact, and not until these explorers met the Shoshones near the
headwaters of the Missouri do we find any note made of signs being used.
If these explorers who entered so minutely into the characteristics of the
Indians in their writings failed to make a record of this language, I do not
think it very surprising that earlier investigations should have, under less
favorable auspices, also neglected it.
I have called attention to the lack of any systematic code of gestures
among the Algonquins, and given some idea of the great geographical area
corered by their language, and I believe this to be the reason for the
non-culture and lack of general use of signs
The condition of affairs in the South was, however, much more favorable
to the growth or perfection of gesture speech than in the North, for there
m-ere many different vocal languages spoken by the various tribes in that
section.
In 1885 Captain W. P. Clark made the observation that during
the last 100 to 150 years the following tribes had had determined
6Lewis F. Hadley, Indian Sign Talk (Chicago, 18931, Preface.
W. P. Clark, The Indian Sign Lrmguage (Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 11-13.
7
centers, if not of origin, certainly of perfection and propagation of
gesture speech: (1) Cheyennes and Arapahoes; (2) Mandam, Gros
Ventres and Arickarees; (3) Crows; (4) Blackfeet; (5) Ki0.st.a~
and Apaches!
Colonel Richard Irving Dodge believed, as did the P l a i . Indians,
that the sign language was invented by the Kiowas who held an
intermediate position between the Southern and Northern Plains
tribes?
William Tomkins, another student of the sign language, stated
that records of the landings of Columbus and the recordings of
Coronado and Cabrillo showed that Indians at that time conversed
by means of signs. Tomkins book, U~iversalIndian Sign Language
of The Plains Indiarcs Of North America, contains a significant statement made by Dr. William H. Corbusier, a Surgeon in the U. S. Army
and a deep student of Indian affairs, who said in 1878: "The traditions of the Indians point towards the South as the direction from
which the sign language came. The Comanches acquired it in Mexico;
The Plains Indians did not invent it." This quotation expresses
virtually the same opinion which Captain Clark expressed as to the
origin of the sign 1anguage.iJ
The use of signs or gestures as a cultivated art founded upon
natural principles served a very useful purpose for the Plains
Indians.11 This non-vocal communication enabled each Indian nation
to converse with one another intelligibly. Warriors of different
tribes could communicate at long distances, alliances among themselves could be made for attacks on enemies, and attacks could be
arranged for upon settlers and travelers.12
Since almost all Indians are known for their reticence, it was
surprising to J. Lee Humfreville to note that the Indians would
sit for hours and hours and converse in the sign language with much
rapidity.ls Captain Clark was associated closely with the Cheyennes,
Crows, Sioux, Bannocks, Assiniboins, Gros Ventres of the Prairie,
Mandans, Arickarees and other tribes of the Northern Plains. He
discovered that to have the Indians first make the gesture was an
absolute necessity. If a white man makes a sign to an Indian in 8
8 Ibid, pp. 13-14
@Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, Our Witd Indians: Thirty-Three Years' Per
s o d Experience Among The Red Men of The Great West (Hartford, 1882),.P.
l o William Tomkins, Universal Indian Sign Language Of The Plains I n d 0~1
North America (San Diego, 1929). p. 89,
11Gamck Mallery, introduction To The Study Of Sign Language Among The
North Americm Indians (Washington, 1880), p. 2.
mJ. Lee Humfraville, Twenty Years Among Ow Sauage Tribes ( ~ a f i f o r b
1897), p.. 155.
lslbrd, 153.
*-
Sign Langmge of the PlaircJ Zndicrns
171
certain way, the chances are ten to one that he wiU return it in the
same way, even though he has never seen it before.14
Oarrick Mallery, an ethnologist, observed that thoughts could
be communicated rapidly by the use of signs. He said 9 5
When highly cultivated [the sign language] its rapidity on familiar
subjects exceeds that of speech and approaches to that of thought itself.
This statement may be startling to those who only notice that a selected
spoken word may convey in an instant a meaning for which the motions of
even an expert in signs may require a much longer time, but i t must be
considered that oral speech is now wholly conventional, and that with the
similar development of sign language conventional expressions with hands
and body could be made more quickly than with the vocal organs, because
more organs could be worked a t one time.
A case in point of the discontinuance of the gesture language is
the development of the Chinook language or jargon in southern
Oregon which resulted as a consequence of the trade of the Kalapuyas
Indians with foreign people.l6
Mallery further illustrated that signs have been abbreviated as
in the case of a Cheyenne conveying the meaning of old mala to him.
The Indian held his right hand forward, bent a t the elbow, fingers
and thumb closed sidewise. This did not seem to convey any sense
so he found a long stick, bent his back, and supported his frame in a
tottering step by the stick held, as was before only imagined. There
at once was an old age dependent on a staff.17
Clark observed many signs which disappeared with new developments :I8
Before the introduction of the coffee;mill among the Indians, coffee
was represented a s a grain, or more, elaborately by describing the process
of preparing and drinking the beverage. The little coffee-mill killed off
these gestures a t once, and the motion made a s though turning the crank
of the mill t o grind the parched berry is to-day understood a s meaning
coffee by nearly all the Plains tribes.
There are certain modal divisions which Garrick Mallery made
of the gesture language. He divided the signs of the Indians into
innate and invented ; developed and abridged ;radical and derivative ;
( 1 ) Indicative, as directly as possible of the object intended; (2)
Imitative, representing it by configurative drawing ; (3) Operative,
referring to actions and (4) Expressive, being chiefly facial.lg
Signals should be mentioned along with signs because they were
a prominent part of the communication on the Plains. Mallery said
with reference to signals that: "Signals may be executed, first by
14 Clark, op cit, pp. 5 6 .
15 Mallery, op. cit., p. 4.
16 Ibid., 12.
17 Ibid., 55.
18 Clark, op. cit., p. 15.
19 Mallery, op. cit., p. 59.
172
Chronicles of Oklahoma
bodily action; second, by action of the person in connection with
objects, such as a blanket, or a lance, or the direction imparted to a
horse; third by various devices, such as smoke, fire or dust, when
the person of the signalist is not visible."20
An amazing example of the use of signals is the statement made
that the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians knew of the death of General
Custer the next morning after he was killed. B y the use of the
familiar signals such as flaming arrows and tom-tom beats one
tribe signaled another tribe until the news was passed.21
T. R. Davis says that :22
One of Custer's scouts, an interpreter named Gay, rode out and made
first "peace", then "circle" sign. The peace sign is made by riding toward
the party with whom i t is desired t o communicate, making the horse take
a zig-zag course. I do not know how to describe it better than to say that
the courae of the horse would resemble a Virginia rail fence. The "council"
sign is made by riding in a circle, then forward, circling again, and so on.
In later times a few Indian tribes like the Sioux had a system
of heliograph signals conveyed by use of mirrors. Drum signals for
calling the Indians together on ceremonial occasions were almost
universal among tribes. Signal calls were in general use among the
Eastern tribes.2s
Major-General Hugh Lenox Scott was one of the notable contributors to the study of the sign language. He was puzzled for
many years as to the correct sign for "Arapaho ", which is expressed
by touching the breast a t three points from left to right. Scott's
study concerning this one sign shows how difficult it is to arrive
a t the exact meaning of signs:2*
The Cheyenne and Sioux name for Arapaho-Sky Blue-offered no solution. After I went to Washington in 1902 I searched for some clue in the
dictionaries of the Indian language. In Crow the word for Arapaho means
many tattoos. At last I had my answer. The Indians picked their skins
with porcupine quills until the blood came, then covered the incisions with
powdered charcoal. The tattoo markings that resulted were sky blue.
Elsewhere I read that the Arapahoes were tattooed on the breast in three
places. I t took me twenty-five years to get to the bottom of this one sign.
Each tribe had a sign which designated the name of the group.
The following tribal signs are described by Randolph B. Marcy:
Comanche, or "Snake" is indicated by making a waving motion
Z O J . W. P o r d l (Director). First Annud Report, Bureau of Ethnology (187918801, "Sign Language Among North American Indians" by Garrick Mallery (Washington, 1881), p. 529.
21 Jeff D. Randolph (Interview), Indian-Pioneer History, Foreman Collection,
Vol. MU, p. 310 (Indian Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society).
SzT. R. Davis, "A Summer On The Plains", Harper's New Monthly Magazine,
Vol. XXXVI (No. 213, Feb., 18681, p. 302.
Robinson Johnson (Whirling Thunder), "Some 200 Signs Used ~ f f e c t i v e l ~
In Indian Sign Language", The American I ~ d i a n Vol.
,
IV, No. 4 (Jan., 19301, p. 14.
%Elsie Weil, The New York Times, Preserving The Indian Sign ~anguage",
July 5, 1931, Vol. VIII, 8:l.
Sign Langwge of the Plains ZndianJ
173
with the hand. The Cheyenne, or "Cut-Arm", is made by drawing
the hand across the arm. The Arapahoes, or "Smellers", are indicated by seizing the nose with the thumb and forefinger. The
Sioux, or "Cut-throats", are indicated by drawing the hand across
the throat. The Pawnees, or "Wolves", make their sign by placing
a hand on each side of the forehead, with two fingers pointing to
the front. The Crows, give their sign by flapping the palms of their
hands.25
Colonel Dodge shows that while the Cheyennes and Arapahoes
have been the firmest friends for sixty years yet they do not understand each other in their respective languages." I t would seem that
since one of the languages is easier that it would have eventually been
adopted by both tribes for intercomrnunicati~n.~*
Many of the Indians
were almost as little versed in the use of signs as ordinary white
people. This was especially true of the Utes.28 Dodge met a few
Plains Indians, who, though brought up with the sign language, had
never arrived a t sufficient knowledge of the language to converse in
it.:9
He had never seen a woman, child or young man who wss at
all reliable with sig1~3.3~
A popular misconception concerning the sign language has been
challenged by Garrick Mallery. He has shown that abstract as well
as concrete ideas may be expressed in the sign language.31
Another popular error is the assertion that there is one universal
sign language. Mallery made the statement that this was not necessarily true for :32
In numerous instances there is an entire discrepancy between the
signs made by different bodies of Indians to express the same idea; and
if any oP these are regarded a s determinate, or even widely conventional,
and used without further devices, they will fail in conveying the desired
impression to any one unskilled in gesture as an art, who had not formed
the same precise conception or been instructed in the arbitrary motion.
Two Arapahoes could not thoroughly comprehend each other in
the dark without the intervention of the sign language. Their language
xas evidently very difficult to acquire.33
The Mandan and Gros Ventre tribes spoke their respective
languages fluently yet they understood the language of the opposite
W
Randolph B. Marcy, Thirty Years
lW),
p. 33.
26 Dodge,
Of Army Life On the Border (New York,
op. cit., p. 46.
27 Ibid., p. 47.
B I b i d , p.
29 [bid., p.
30 1bid., p.
31 Mallery,
321bid., p.
3834.
384.
390.
op. cit., p. 6.
13.
33Lieutenant H. R. Lemlp, "Among The Arrapal~oes",Harper's Mcgarine, Vol.
No. 358, 32 (March, 18801, pp. 4978.
m,
It was not uncommon to see a Mandan questioning in his
own language and receiving an answer in Gros V e ~ ~ t r e . ~ *
better.
Major Stephen Long related that the "Kiawa" [&I and
"Kaskaia'f [sic] languages, although associated together, did not
understand each other except by signs.35
Tribes along the Thirty-fifth Parallel generally understood the
Caddo language but they were not willing to converse with white
men except through signs and interpreters. They felt that it was
beneath their dignity to speak out of their native tongue although
some of them could speak S p a n i ~ h . ~ ~
Various explorers, travelers, preachers, traders and army men
have given recognition in their writings to the presence of the sign
language among the Plains Indians of North America. Randolph
B. Marcy in his Adventure On Red River said that the sign language
was used by all the tribes from the Gila to the Columbia River.37
The Reverend A. J. Holt, a pioneer Baptist preacher who worked
among the Comanches, said " . . . . One can learn the sign
language and can travel among any of these Wild Indians and make
his wants and wishes known thereby."38
Joseph Kossuth Dixon described the Indian council in the valley
of the Little Big Horn in Montana. Here the Indian chiefs such as
Plenty Coups, Mountain Chief and White Horse talked in sign
language by means of interpreter^.^^
Israel G. Vore believed that the sign language was very inadequate as a means for expressing the gospel story. He said:40
I know exactly how expressive and inspiring it is. It does not repreaent letters or words, but things. It is very meager--God's truth can
neither be proclaimed or illustrated in it. The very idea to those who
understand it is terribly absurd. I am no missionary-No minister of the
Gospel-No Writeist,
. the fault is my education. I graduated among
the Indians of the Indian Territory, -my studies never reached gram-
.. .
...
mar. .
Chittenden and Richardson mentioned this mute language, the
sign language, which may be styled a language of defense and caution.
Washington Matthews, Ethnography And Philology of the Hidasta Indm
(Washington, 1877). pp. 17-18.
=Major Stephen H. Long, Account of An Expedition From Pittsburgh TO The
Rocky Mountains (Compiled by Edwin James), 11, (Philadelphia, 1823), p. 186.
36J. W. Palmer, "The Tribes of The Thirty-Fifth Parallel", Harper's New
Monthly Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 100, 451 (August, 1858), p. 451.
37 Randolph B. Marcy, Adventure On Red River (Edited b y Grant Foreman),
(Norman, 19371, p. 168.
A. J. Holt, Pioneering In The Southwest (Nashville, 1923), p. 134.
3s Joseph Kwsuth Dixon, The Vanishing Raw (Philadelphia, 19251, pp. 9, lo,
191 ff.
@Carolyn Thomas Foreman, *Israel G. Vore And Levering Manual Labor
School", The Chronicles of Oklahoma, VoL XXV, No. 3 (Autumn, 1947-81, p. 206.
Sign hngulyre of the P
b Indiant
175
Their hieroglyphic buffalo-robes often contained the narrative of
important events. This, however, was not because they did not have
the proper words in their various
There is an amazing similarity between the language of signs
and that of deaf-mutes. Even the great German philosopher Kant
held the idea that the mind of a deaf-mute was incapable of developrnent.42 Captain Clark stated that he had seen a little child three
years of age hold up his tiny hands and carry on a conversation with
the deaf-mute parents.43
Professor Webb has snmmed up the principal differences between
the language of the deaf and that of the sign language used by the
Plains Indians. (1) The Indians made much wider gestures than
do the deaf-mutes. (2) Indians used their arms more than the deafmutes. (3) Indians repeated their signs more often. (4) Indians
used both hands more than the deaf. (5) The Indians endeavored to
keep the back part of the hand toward the observer.'"
Marcy observed the similarity of the sign and deaf-mute communications so that he was able to say :45
This pantominic vocabulary which is exceedingly graceful and significant, when oral communication is impracticable, constitutes the court
language of the Plains; and, what was a fact of much astonishment to me,
I discovered that it was nearly the same as that practiced by the mutes
of our deaf and dumb institutions that I visited. For example, there
were some five or six boys directed to take their places a t the blackboards
and interpret what I proposed to say. I then, by pantorninic signs, told
them that I went on a buffalo hunt, saw a herd, chased them on horseback,
fired my gun and killed one, cut it up, ate some of the meat, and went
to sleep--every word of which was written down upon the blackboard by
each boy a s rapidly a s the signs were made, excepting that all made the
common mistake of taking the buffalo for deer.
We have seen that the sign language served a useful purpose on
the Plains of the United States. I t was well adapted to the cultural
pattern of the Plains Indians; especially in connection with their
methods of warfare. We have found that the use of gestures are not
absent in our society today. The sign language was shortened and
changed so that it has virtually become extinct for all practical purposes.
In conclusion it must be remembered that all which has been said
in this paper about the sign language should be tempered with the
fact which Mallery so forcefully stressed. The fact is "
that in
the collection and description of Indian signs there is danger lmt
. ...
-
Hiram Martin Chittenden and Alfred Talbot Richardson, Lije, Letters And
Travels of Father PierreJean De Smet, S J , Vol. I1 (New York, 1905). p. 681.
Clark, op. cit, p. 9.
43 Ibid., p. 9.
44 Webb, op. cit., p. 7 4
45 Marcy, op. cir., pp. 32-33.
176
Chronicles of OWalroma
the civilized understanding of the original conception be mistaken
or forced.''46
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
(Newspapers)
Kaempffert, Waldemar, The New York Times, "The Week In Science: Speaking
With The Hands', March 15, 1936, XI, 6:2.
Weil, Elsie, The New York Times, "Preserving The Indian Sign Language", July 5,
1931, MII, 8:l.
(Periodicals)
Davidson, Levette J., "Some Current Folk Gestures And Sign Languages", American
Speech, XXV (No. 1, Feb., 1950), 3-9.
Davis, T. R., "A Summer On The Plains", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XXXVI
(No. 213, Feb., 1868).
Foreman, Carolyn Thomas, "Israel G. Vore And Levering Manual Labor School",
The Chronicles of Oklahoma, XXV (No. 1947-8).
Foreman, Carolyn Thomas, "Lewis Francis Hadley: 'The Long-Haired Sign Talker'",
T k Chronicles of Oklahoma, XXVII (No. I, 1949-50).
Grinde, Nick, "Handmade Language", The Saturday Evening Post, CCXXI (July
10, 1948), 34 ff.
Johnson, Robinson, (Whirling Thunder, Winnebago), "Some 200 Signs Used Effectively In Indian Sign Language", The American Indian, IV (No. 4, Jan.,
1930).
Lemly, Lt. H. R., "Among The Arrapahoes", Harper's Magazine, LX (No. 358, 32,
March, 1880).
Palmer, J. W., "The Tribes of The Thirty-Fifth Parallel", Harper's New Monthly
Magazine, XVII (No. 100, 451, Aug., 1858).
(Books)
Clark, W. P., The Indian Sign Language, (L. R. Hamersly & Co.), Philadelphia,
1885.
Dixon, Joseph Kossuth, The Vanishing Race, (National American Indian Memorial
Association Press), Philadelphia, 1925.
Dellenbaugh, Frederick S., The North Americans of Yesterday, (G. P. Putnam's
Sons), New York & London, 1901.
Dodge, Col. Richard Irving, Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years' Personal Experience Among The Red Men of The Great West, (A. D. Worthington & Co.),
Hartford, 1882.
Hadley, Lewis F., in&
Sign Talk, (Baker & C o . ) , Chicago, 1893.
Holt, A. J., Pioneering In The Southwest, (Sunday School Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention) , pjashville, 1923.
Hosmer, James K., History of The Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark (1801
5-6), I1 Vol., (A. C. McClurg & Co.), Chicago, 1903.
Humfreville, J. Lee, Twenty Yews Among Our Savage Tribes, (Hartford Pub. Co.),
Hartford, 1897.
Long, Major Stephen H., Account Of An Expedition From Pittsburgh To The R o c k
MoLurtains (Compiled by Edwin James), I1 vol., Philadelphia, 1823.
Mallery, Garrick, Ratroduction To The Study Of Sign Language Among The North
America Indians, (Government Printing Office), Washington, 1880.
Marcy, Randolph B., Adventure On Red River, (Edited by Grant Foreman), (Univarsity of Oklahoma Press), Norman, 1937.
Mdery, op. cit, p. 42.
Sign Language
of
the Plcdns Indians
in
Marcy, Randolph B., Thirty Years Of Army Life On the Border, (Haiper & Brothers),
New York, 1866.
Matthews, Washington, Ethnography And Philology of the Hidasta Indians, (Government Printing Office), Washington, 1877.
Petter, Rodolphe (Article written by), Indian-Pioneer History, Foreman Collection.
Powell, J. W. (Director), First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (18791880) with "Sign Language Among North American Indians" by Garrick Mallery, Washington, 1881.
Richardson, Albert D., Beyond The Mississippi, (l857-67), (American Pub. Co.) ,
Hartford, 1867.
'Tomkins, William, Universal Indian Sign Language O f The Plains Indirrns Of
North America, (Frye & Smith), San Diego, 1929.
Webb, Walter P., The Great Plains, (Ginn & CO.),Dallas, 1931.
Chittenden, Hiram Martin and Richardson, Alfred Talbot, Life, Letters And Trazds
of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J., IV vol. (1801-1873), (Francis P. Harper),
New York, 1905.